The Findlay Courier 12/05/00
Fostoria Schools cleaning out records
http://www.thecourier.com/issues/holding/current/current.htm#story3
FOSTORIA -- It's about time to clean out the basements and attics of the
Fostoria Community Schools district.
Dark, dingy rooms in each of the district's school buildings are filled with
boxes and boxes of old school records, some dating back to the 1950s and
earlier, many of which haven't seen the light of day in years.
Not for much longer.
District treasurer Dolores Cramer is preparing to gather up each of the
school buildings' useless, out-of-date records of students, employees,
buildings, financial issues, food service, special education and meeting
notices, to name a few.
Newport News Daily Press 12/05/00
Crossroads study papers subject of FOI requests
http://www.dailypress.com/news/stories/01218sy0.htm
by Susan Friend
HAMPTON - A number of experts who specialize in open government law say
Hampton is probably wrong in its position that an economic study commissioned
by the City Council can be withheld from the public.
Hampton has turned down verbal and written requests from the Daily Press for
a copy of the study, citing the "working papers" exemption under state law.
Under that law, working papers do not have to be released to the public.
City Manager George Wallace -- on the advice of City Attorney Paul Burton --
also has refused to release the report to the City Council. But Wallace has
allowed members to read it in City Hall. The study -- on the Crossroads
convention center, which the council has since approved -- was commissioned
by the council in April 1999 at a cost of $260,000.
ZDNet.com 12/05/00
Privacy Groups: Shut Amazon down!
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2661580,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01
by Will Knight
ZDNet (UK)
Online bookseller Amazon.co.uk has admitted it is unable to comply with UK
data protection laws, according to civil rights campaign group Privacy
International.
Privacy International -- which has brought a joint action with another
privacy group, Junkbusters, against the online giant -- is calling for the
Internet retailer to be shut down until it can guarantee privacy for
customers.
Director of Privacy International Simon Davies says that when challenged,
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) confirmed it is unable to supply customers with their
personal data or have that data deleted, as required by the Data Protection
Act.
New York Times 12/05/00
Carnivore privacy concerns remain
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/technology/05CARN.html
by John Schwartz
Despite winning a favorable review by an outside group, the F.B.I.'s
Carnivore Internet wiretap system continues to raise strong concerns about
privacy and the legal limits of government surveillance, a prominent panel of
computer security experts said yesterday.
The new report could mean further trouble for a system that has drawn
criticism since its existence was first revealed in July.
The new report responds to a review of Carnivore by the Illinois Institute of
Technology's Research Institute, which released a draft report on Nov. 17.
Nebraska Journal Star 12/05/00
Adoption detective: Reunites birth mothers, children they gave away
http://www.journalstar.com/nebraska?story_id=1680&date=20001203&past=
by Nancy Hicks
Gerardo "Jerry" Dominguez is an adoption detective, a broker of emotions.
He helps unite people with the lost pieces of their pasts - sometimes with
the parents who gave them up for adoption decades ago, sometimes with the
child they gave life but did not raise.
Dominguez works for the Nebraska Health and Human Service System. He is a
middle man with access to some of the court and birth records, Sherlock
Holmes-like skills in tracing missing persons and a generous spirit that
makes strangers comfortable in his presence.
And he has stories - 11 years of stories about the twists and turns of
reuniting strangers who have a genetic link.
Russia Today 12/05/00
Arson attack destroys Grozny municipal records
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=227019
Agence France Presse
MOSCOW, Dec 5, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Arsonists were blamed for a
fire which destroyed municipal records in the Chechen capital Grozny,
according to city official Zukhra Murtazarova, quoted Monday by the Russian
daily Vremia Novostei.
CNN 12/5/00
Canadian privacy law may place burden on U.S. firms
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/05/canadian.privacy.law.idg/index.ht
ml
Computerworld
(IDG) -- Next month, Canada will enact a law that offers sweeping privacy
protections for its citizens. But the law may also create legal obligations
and data management problems for potentially thousands of businesses that
exchange data with firms and subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S.'s largest
trading partner.
On Jan. 1, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents
Act becomes law, requiring businesses to offer Canadian citizens certain
guarantees regarding the collection and use of personal data. For example,
they must get a customer's consent before sharing data with affiliates or
commercial partners and must provide access to that data for review.
This communications problem has hindered development of personalized products
that many companies Washington Post 12/05/00
Internet firms act to ease sharing of personal data
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23676-2000Dec4.html
by Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Several dozen e-commerce specialists are creating a system designed to vastly
improve their ability to share names, identification numbers and a wealth of
behavioral data about individual consumers, a prospect that raises new
questions about the security and privacy of personal information.
The group, which includes International Business Machines Corp.,
MicroStrategy Inc. and First Union Corp., hopes its Customer Profile Exchange
standard will address one of the secrets of the information age:
Technology-savvy companies use so many different computer systems, they often
cannot easily transmit dossiers about individuals.
Washington Post 12/04/00
Shenandoah prepares to open archive
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20576-2000Dec4.html
by Leef Smith
Shenandoah National Park has hired its first archivist, who arrived on the
job last month and began readying the park's historical collections for the
opening of a long-anticipated public reading room.
Harry G. Heiss, an archivist for the past 10 years with the Library of
Congress's manuscript division, began work at the park Nov. 20. His arrival
and the eventual opening of the archive is expected to end a dispute over
access to a large collection of records and artifacts that document the 1930s
resettlement of hundreds of families forced to leave their homes in the Blue
Ridge Mountains to make room for the park.
New York Times 12/05/00
Computer data key to racketeer case
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Keystroke-Evidence.html
Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- In a case that could test the limits of FBI surveillance
in the Information Age, an alleged racketeer is going to trial on evidence
gathered by agents who rigged his computer and monitored his every keystroke.
Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr., 35, the son of the jailed former boss of the
Philadelphia mob, faces federal charges of running a bookmaking and
loansharking operation.
According to court documents, agents modified a computer Scarfo used at his
Essex County business so that the FBI could monitor every keystroke,
according to court documents.
Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Richmond, Va
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